The Effect of Pauses in AAC Devices Using Pre-Stored Utterances for Social Conversation
By Todman, John; Rzepecka, Halina; RESNA 26th International Annual Conference 2003,Publication Date: 2003
Study conducted to investigate the experimental effects of variations in average pause time on perceptions of communicative competence in social situations, as opposed to transactional conversations. The researchers hypothesized that, for social conversations, shorter average pause times would result in more positive attributions of communicative competence. Three people who were unable to speak due to cerebral palsy each used TALKBoards, which are whole-utterance AAC systems, to have social conversations with three speaking partners. The conversations were recorded, and five-minute extracts from the middle of each conversation were analyzed in the study. Pauses preceding the participants’ turns at speech were replaced with pauses with an average length of two, six, and ten seconds. Twenty-eight volunteer raters listened to each of the nine conversation extracts. A rater listened to each extract in one of four conditions with a specified average pause time. The raters expressed their degree of agreement with 14 statements on a 7-point scale (1 for total disagreement, 7 for total agreement). The hypothesis shorter pause time would amount to more favorable impressions of communication competence was supported. The authors conclude that the results of the study have implications for the utilization of whole utterances in AAC devices.
Assistive Products Discussed: DELUXE TALK BOARD (MODEL 1117)
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
